Webster's Unabridged Dictionary — Themes and Context

own, yet could not be abandoned. I. Taylor.

3. Reflexively : To give (one's self) up without attempt at self- control ; to yield (one's self) unrestrainedly ; -- often in a bad sense. He abandoned himself . . . to his favorite vice. Macaulay.

Defn: To relinquish all claim to; -- used when an insured person gives up to underwriters all claim to the property covered by a policy, which may remain after loss or damage by a peril insured against.

Syn. -- To give up; yield; forego; cede; surrender; resign; abdicate; quit; relinquish; renounce; desert; forsake; leave; retire; withdraw from. -- To Abandon, Desert, Forsake. These words agree in representing a person as giving up or leaving some object, but differ as to the mode of doing it. The distinctive sense of abandon is that of giving up a thing absolutely and finally; as, to abandon one's friends, places, opinions, good or evil habits, a hopeless enterprise, a shipwrecked vessel. Abandon is more widely applicable than forsake or desert. The Latin original of desert appears to have been originally applied to the case of deserters from military service. Hence, the verb, when used of persons in the active voice, has usually or always a bad sense, implying some breach of fidelity, honor, etc., the leaving of something which the person should rightfully stand by and support; as, to desert one's colors, to desert one's post, to desert one's principles or duty. When used in the passive, the sense is not necessarily bad; as, the fields were deserted, a deserted village, deserted halls. Forsake implies the breaking off of previous habit, association, personal connection, or that the thing left had been familiar or frequented; as, to forsake old friends, to forsake the paths of rectitude, the blood forsook his cheeks. It may be used either in a good or in a bad sense.

ABANDON A*ban"don, n. Etym: [F. abandon. fr. abandonner. See Abandon, v.]

Defn: Abandonment; relinquishment. [Obs.]

ABANDON A`ban`don", n. Etym: [F. See Abandon.]

Defn: A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease.

ABANDONED A*ban"doned, a.

1. Forsaken, deserted. "Your abandoned streams." Thomson.

2. Self-abandoned, or given up to vice; extremely wicked, or sinning without restraint; irreclaimably wicked ; as, an abandoned villain.

Syn. -- Profligate; dissolute; corrupt; vicious; depraved; reprobate; wicked; unprincipled; graceless; vile. -- Abandoned, Profligate, Reprobate. These adjectives agree in expressing the idea of great personal depravity. Profligate has reference to open and shameless immoralities, either in private life or political conduct; as, a profligate court, a profligate ministry. Abandoned is stronger, and has reference to the searing of conscience and hardening of heart produced by a man's giving himself wholly up to iniquity; as, a man of abandoned character. Reprobate describes the condition of one who has become insensible to reproof, and who is morally abandoned and lost beyond hope of recovery. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Rom. i. 28.

ABANDONEDLY A*ban"doned*ly, adv.

Defn: Unrestrainedly.

ABANDONEE A*ban`don*ee", n. (Law)

Defn: One to whom anything is legally abandoned.

ABANDONER A*ban"don*er, n.

Defn: One who abandons. Beau. & Fl.

ABANDONMENT A*ban"don*ment, n. Etym: [Cf. F. abandonnement.]

1. The act of abandoning, or the state of being abandoned; total desertion; relinquishment. The abandonment of the independence of Europe. Burke.

Defn: The relinquishment by the insured to the underwriters of what may remain of the property insured after a loss or damage by a peril insured against.

Defn: (a) The relinquishment of a right, claim, or privilege, as to mill site, etc. (b) The voluntary leaving of a person to whom one is bound by a special relation, as a wife, husband, or child; desertion.

4. Careless freedom or ease; abandon. [R.] Carlyle.

ABANDUM A*ban"*dum, n. Etym: [LL. See Abandon.] (Law)

Defn: Anything forfeited or confiscated.

ABANGA A*ban"ga, n. Etym: [Name given by the negroes in the island of St. Thomas.]

Defn: A West Indian palm; also the fruit of this palm, the seeds of which are used as a remedy for diseases of the chest.

ABANNATION; ABANNITION Ab`an*na"tion, Ab`an*nition, n. Etym: [LL. abannatio; ad + LL. bannire to banish.] (Old Law)

Defn: Banishment. [Obs.] Bailey.

ABARTICULATION Ab`ar*tic`u*la"tion, n. Etym: [L. ab + E. articulation : cf. F. abarticulation. See Article.] (Anat.)

Defn: Articulation, usually that kind of articulation which admits of free motion in the joint; diarthrosis. Coxe.

ABASE A*base", v.t. [imp.&p.p. Abased; p.pr. & vb. n. Abasing.] Etym: [F. abaisser, LL. abassare, abbassare ; ad + bassare, fr. bassus low. See Base, a.]

1. To lower or depress; to throw or cast down; as, to abase the eye. [Archaic] Bacon. Saying so, he abased his lance. Shelton.